


the gift of giving

by Angelface6



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, M/M, this is just a draft that im not ready to post yet so if u find it dont read it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-03-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:29:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23173963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angelface6/pseuds/Angelface6
Summary: Midoriya Izuku was never quirkless. He only lacked the power to help those in need.What he held was a Gift, one that would only come to light from a tragic path, held in the hands of those who only take. Maybe, if he gives enough, he can build a dream from the ruins of his life.





	the gift of giving

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Midoriya Izuku was never quirkless. He only lacked the power to help those in need.
> 
> What he held was a Gift, one that would only come to light from a tragic path.
> 
> Maybe, if he gives enough, he can build a dream from the ruins of his life.

Izuku sniffled as he swung on the swing, looking over towards Kacchan and his friends playing while nursing his newest burn mark. It was on his forearm, so it shouldn’t be too hard to hide from Mom.

_Just have to wear long sleeves for a few days before it fades, and it’ll be okay. I know Kacchan didn’t mean it, he’s just not good at not being rough._

It had already been two years since everyone else had gotten their quirks and left Izuku behind in the dust, and Izuku couldn’t blame them.

_After all, who’d want to be near a quirkless, useless Deku like--_

The sound of footsteps cuts off Izuku’s thought, and his head swivels to face an older boy with light blue hair that was so pale, it looked white. He was wearing all black, had a scar cutting across the left side of his mouth, and his skin looked oddly dried out.

_It must be because of his quirk. I wonder what kind of quirk would result in skin like that, it looks like it’s almost cracking. Perhaps some sort of quirk that dries things out? Maybe he sucks the moisture out of things and uses it to revitalize his skin, but because he hasn’t done it in a while, his skin looks dry? It would have to require some sort of skin contact to perform it most likely, which means its most likely an emitter quirk, possibly, “--activated through the hand or fingertips? If it’s fingertips, then it’s likely a five-point activation, which means he likely can’t turn it off. I suppose he might use special gloves that only come with one or two fingers covered, meaning he can use his hands without risking accidental quirk use--”_

The pale-haired boy simply keeps staring at Izuku, a near joyous look overtaking his eyes.

_“--although, judging by the positioning of his fingertips, he seems to be used to using his quirk, but his skin doesn’t seem like it’s used to changing, which means it must be constantly dry. Perhaps it’s not a quirk that sucks up moisture, but only dries things out? That would make the most sense. Does it spread from wherever he’s touched or does it only dry out on the spots he’s touched? The applications of that quirk would be incredible for..._ f-for...ah, I started mumbling again! I’m so sorry!” Izuku slapped his hands over his mouth, eyes wide as he looked up at the boy standing over him, but the boy merely smiled in return.

“No, go on! That was incredible, how you picked apart my quirk in seconds with just a glance. You’d make a great player two…” The boy says with an odd gleam in his eyes. “You only got one thing wrong, though.”

“Huh? W-what is it?”

“My quirk doesn’t dry things out. It disintegrates them.” A wide, almost sharp smile spreads on his scarred face, but Izuku ignores every red flag.

“Wow! That’s incredible! You could do so much with your quirk! It’s so versatile!” Izuku hopped off of the swing, smiling up at the boy. “My name is Midoriya Izuku!”

“Hm. I’m Shigaraki Tomura. Do you want to meet my caretaker, Kurogiri? He has a warp quirk.”

“A warp quirk?! I-I mean…” Izuku looks back toward where Kacchan is playing nervously, “I’m supposed to stay near Kacchan….”

“Come on, it won’t take more than a few minutes. You’re smart enough that’d you’d figure out how it works in seconds. Let’s go.” Shigaraki starts walking towards the entrance of the park, a tall man made of purple mist standing by the gate.

Izuku takes one last nervous glance at his childhood friend before running to catch up with Shigaraki.

_It’ll be fine, Kacchan won’t even notice I’m gone! I’ll only be gone for a few minutes, and warp quirks are so rare! I’d be crazy to try not to see this!_

Neither Izuku nor Katsuki would see each other once in the next eight years.

* * *

“Come on, _Izuku!_ Surely, you can do better than _that!_ ” Shigaraki taunted, lunging forward with his hands raised. Izuku dodged to the side narrowly avoiding being hit as the side of his shirt started disintegrating. 

Fear pushed at Izuku’s every nerve, but he ignored it, dodging to the left again before sweeping low, trying to knock the older villain off his feet. All it really did was cause the thirteen-year-old to lose his balance, almost falling over as Izuku managed to knock one of his feet out from under him, grabbing the boy’s black hoodie and pulling it down in order to make him fully topple over.

Grabbing hold of the weak earth quirk Sensei had granted him, Izuku pushed his hands into the concrete floor, hoping to trap Shigaraki into the floor and bring an end to the little “spar” but the quirk did little more than slightly raise the concrete, melding to Shigaraki’s shape, but doing about as much as a chalk outline.

“You little _brat!”_ Shigaraki threw himself up, yelling and spitting as he dove towards Izuku, hand outstretched, and Izuku could do little more than let out a short screech and try to dodge away when Shigaraki’s _other hand_ came up, grabbing onto Izuku’s right bicep with all five fingers and quickly decaying a small patch of skin. 

Izuku let out a yell as his left hand came up to cover the wound that was now bleeding profusely. Shigaraki, having gotten bored of the fight in barely any time at all, was nowhere in sight.

“Now, Izuku, hold still. You need to allow me to treat this.” The deep baritone of the League of Villain’s bartender and primary caretaker washed over him, allowing Izuku to take a second to calm himself before pulling his hand away, hissing as the gash was exposed to the dusty open air. “I do wish Master Shigaraki would refrain from injuring you like this. He is aware that I am the one who has to treat you every time.”

The mist villain seemed to sigh, although it was hard to tell. Izuku almost smiled, he probably would’ve if he hadn’t been kidnapped and forced to assimilate just a few months ago.

“Sorry about this, Mr. Kurogiri.” The man cleaned the wound, disinfected it with a precision Izuku would most likely never achieve, and wrapped it quickly and efficiently, ignoring Izuku’s pained whimpers. 

Kurogiri couldn’t believe how quickly Izuku had gotten used to muffling all cries, whether it be out of pain or sadness, but the boy was only seven. He wouldn’t succeed in every attempt.

“How many times have I told you, Izuku? It’s just Kurogiri.” Despite the fact that he didn’t have eyes, Izuku could almost picture a smile on the man’s face.

A more somber look took over Izuku’s face, but he didn’t even get the chance to ask the question before Kurogiri cut him off.

_"Don’t_ , Izuku, don’t ask about anyone. Let them know you care, that you still wonder, and they’ll simply have another weakness to hold over you.” The scolding tone overtook the man’s face, and although Izuku could see the pain in the man’s yellow eyes, tears still pooled in his eyes, blurring his vision.

_Another weakness, huh?_

The only reason Izuku had stayed with the League of Villains was because they had threatened his mother, and Izuku would rather die than let his mother ever get hurt. Merely three days after being taken from the park, Izuku was forced to watch a man be disintegrated before his eyes, leaving nothing but a pile of bloody dust on the floor and screams that still echoed in Izuku’s nightmares. Izuku never even heard the man’s name, but he knows that wishing such a death upon his mom would be even worse.

Wiping his tears away, Izuku sighed as Kurogiri packed away the medical supplies, warping them away.

“Am I...Am I always gonna be here, Mr. Kurogiri?” Izuku stared at the ground, holding tightly to his bandages despite the pain radiating from it.

“I believe so, Izuku. I have only known of one thing that has escaped Master’s grasp, and even then, it seems that the Master may be closing in on it soon.” Kurogiri spoke in a matter-of-fact tone, but there was a deeper, more melancholy vibe than rang through the statement that even the man himself seemed to not be aware of.

Izuku sobbed nonetheless, gripping harder on the bandages until Kurogiri pried his hand away, allowing Izuku to hold his formless hands.

The two stayed in the bar until the clock chimed three o’clock, marking Izuku’s weekly lessons with Sensei. Izuku gripped Kurogiri’s hand once more before releasing him, wiping his tears before retrieving his journals and delving into the underground tunnels.

* * *

Sensei was a tall man with white hair. He didn’t look like he had been alive since the birth of quirks, he simply looked like a plain man who probably had an office job and a small family.

It was both his eyes and his hands that gave him away, although Izuku didn’t doubt that the man was most likely aware of his own tells. He was a terrifying man like that, who was too confusing and awful to attempt to comprehend.

His eyes shone with a contempt that made Izuku feel like he was simply a puppet to play with. His eyes made Izuku nervous, since the man often held direct eye contact whenever speaking and stared without a hint of any emotion except for a hatred that he could never remove, a wave of nearly self-righteous anger that had been burning for two hundred years.

His hands were smooth, with no blemishes or imperfections. However, they would _move_ or _twitch_ in a way that had Izuku freezing in place. He often used his hands when talking, gesticulating wildly, but in a manner that was smooth, precise, and almost looked calculated at times. It scared Izuku, knowing that he held near-infinite power within his hands, and that he could cause indescribable pain to Izuku with just a touch.

Izuku never liked his ‘lessons’.

Every other day, at 3:00 PM, Izuku would go to the man’s study and be taught all sorts of things about society, quirks, science, economics, and anything that Izuku would need to "succeed." Izuku didn’t doubt that these lessons were supposed to act as ways to slowly get Izuku to agree with Sensei’s ideals more and more over time, slowly brainwashing him until he didn’t _want_ to leave.

Izuku didn’t care about the man’s ideals. The man was a villain, and Izuku liked Heroes, not Villains. He accepted the opportunity to learn without limits, knowing that it’d be harder if he resisted, but he rarely listened to Sensei the way Sensei _wanted_ him to listen.

Sensei wanted him to listen, to simply take in the information, the _propaganda,_ and eventually just agree with it all, just like all the commercials on TV do, but Izuku’s never listened to anyone or anything like that in any way, and he wasn’t about to start now.

He criticized, rationalized, denied, and mentally argued against Sensei’s lessons, even if the idea of rebelling against the man left him shaking and sleepless sometimes. He read up on the history of what Sensei talked about extensively, and when Sensei talked, Izuku _debated._ The villain just wasn’t aware of it. 

Of course, Izuku couldn’t deny some points at times, but when that happened, he’d reevaluate _everything._ He’d ignore every fallacy, every lie, every mistake of perspective and memory, and only focus on the facts, and he’d take those facts and decide what to do. 

Occasionally, Izuku found himself agreeing with Sensei. The villain had lived for a very long time and had witnessed many injustices, and Izuku knew that some of those injustices still existed and should be addressed. Those times always made Izuku feel sick, like he’d done something bad, but he refused to allow himself to be thrown off-track. One slip up was all it took for Sensei to get into your brain, and Izuku refused to let the man win.

Izuku’s contemplation was cut-off as he finally reached the study. It was hidden a long way underground, through a series of winding hallways, and Izuku was often confused as to why it was so hidden, but he never bothered to ask.

He pushed the door open, spotting Sensei already seated inside at the desk with Izuku’s seat pulled up directly next to him.

“Hello, Izuku. Take a seat, it’s time for your analysis. But first, allow me to see your progress with the Earth Kinesis quirk I granted you.”

Izuku quickly shut the door, taking his seat swiftly and placing his journal on the desk. Sensei took it nearly instantly, opening it to the newest entry quickly.

“H-hello, Sensei,” Izuku mumbled, but the man took no notice.

Izuku could do nothing except wait as Sensei read through the entry, playing with the slightly rougher feeling of his skin that the quirk gave him. His arm still hurt from the spar, but not as badly as it had before. Izuku hoped the scarring wouldn’t be too bad.

“Izuku.”

“Y-yes, Sensei?!” Izuku snapped to attention, back straight and eyes forward. The man chuckled before returning to the journal.

“Your analysis of the quirk is truly marvelous, but you go quite far into the details. Be careful not to let the little things trip you up, Izuku, or else they’ll make a larger problem for you than anything else. It seems you experimented quite a bit with _Earthbending_ , as you named it. I quite enjoy the name, you should get creative more often.” Sensei gave a small smile towards the child, and Izuku can’t help but preen at the small bit of praise.

“Now, right here you theorized that you might be able to ‘sense’ the movement of things through the vibrations of the earth, but is there any reason you didn’t go further into depth about the subject?”

“A-ah, well, Sensei, it was actually pretty hard to analyze Earthbending since there's not many places around the bar where I can find normal earth. E-everything is covered in concrete in the city, which makes it harder to manipulate and sense things through, not t-to mention how my own senses tended to get in the way. I concluded that you’d have to lose one your senses, probably sight or sound, to be able to sense things in the way I meant.e The q-quirk itself would be pretty powerful since it can move any material that has ‘earth’ in it, incl-including concrete too, but since it can only move around tw-twenty pounds of earth at most, and that limit decreases the denser the material, it ends up being a pretty weak quirk, offensively. B-but, th-that’s just my opinion!” Izuku rambles out, his analysis appearing more like an actual theory rather than just a stream of consciousness. At least Sensei’s lessons seem to be good for something.

“I see. That’s a very thoughtful analysis. It would be wonderful to truly understand your thought process someday, Izuku.” Sensei hummed to himself before placing his left hand over Izuku’s forehead. “I’ll trust your analysis right now. I was already having my doubts about keeping this quirk, due to how limited it was, and I can’t see any event that would cause me to require to use such a strange form of sight. I was questioning whether it would be useful to use in one of the Nomu, but it appears it belongs elsewhere.”

The only warning Izuku was given was the slight twitch of Sensei’s hand before a numb feeling spread over his body, filling Izuku with a paralyzing fear. He could feel his skin become smoother as Earthbending was slowly bled from his body. 

It felt as if it took hours, but Izuku knew it barely even took a minute, and he was left sitting, dazed as he rubbed the normal, not-rocky skin of his forearms.

When he looked back up, Sensei had already opened up the books, staring at Izuku expectantly in a way that made Izuku feel as there were bugs crawling under his skin, like he’d already disappointed the man. Izuku shook off his discomfort, bracing himself for the next several hours of lessons.

* * *

Sensei ended up granting him a dog mutation quirk at the end of the lesson to study for the next week.

It took Izuku over an hour after the lesson ended just to figure out how to walk on the strange legs and make it back to the bar. (As it turns out, dogs walk on their toes, not the whole foot.)

Kurogiri welcomed him back by turning the TV off, lessening Izuku’s headache just slightly and increasing Izuku’s affection for the bartender by quite a bit.

* * *

The first time that Izuku asked where all of Sensei’s quirks came from was also the last time.

He had wondered about it often, with a child-like curiosity overshadowed by an experienced dread telling him that he wouldn’t like the answer, so he never asked.

The first time he did ask was when he received a fire-breathing quirk from Sensei.

It was granted to him at the beginning of the lesson, rather than at the end of the lesson. Sensei had been allowing Izuku a few days of being quirkless to, ‘allow him to remember what a regular body is supposed to feel like,’ although Sensei mentioned removing the buffer soon.

The quirk had sat inside Izuku the entire lesson, almost like it was something familiar, as if it recognized him, but at the same time, it knew he was different from what it was used to.

Sensei hadn’t actually told Izuku what the quirk was, meaning that when a small burst of flames shot out of Izuku’s mouth when he exclaimed, moving to answer a question Sensei asked, he ended up rearing back in surprise, dropping the journal in his hand.

The sound of the journal hitting the floor reminded him of a similar time, in which a toy fell on the ground as a Doctor announced something that would change Izuku’s life for the worse, asking Izuku’s mother about his parentage.

_Wait...fire-breathing?_

The one thing Izuku could always remember his mother say about his father’s quirk was about its strange tendency.

_“It’s the funniest thing to see, Izuku! Your father always loves to talk, but if he gets too loud, fire always bursts out of his mouth, and he’d never remember! He'd always get so startled! You’re so much like him, Izuku, I can’t wait to see how you turn out.” A warm smile crossed her face as she looked at him._

_Loud...noises? But...didn’t I just...?!_

Izuku couldn’t help his curiosity, despite the overwhelming fear and dread looming over him.

“Sensei, I was wondering…where did this quirk come from?”

“Ah, I’ve been waiting for you to ask about it, my boy. In fact, I just received this quirk today. Here, come with me, and I’ll show you the pitiful creature who tried to defy me.” Sensei rose from his seat, an almost...excited look appearing on his face, and Izuku quickly ran to follow after the man, despite the nausea turning at his stomach.

The villain led Izuku down twisted hallways, seeming darker at every turn despite the overhead lighting. Izuku felt his stomach twist the farther he went until he bumped into the man he was following, who had stopped without a word.

The door in front of them opened without a word, opening to a large, dark, and dusty laboratory full of Nomus in glass chambers and tables and tools.

“Doctor, how far are you on preparing the most recent body? The fire-breather.”

“Ah, Master! I wasn’t expecting to see you again today!” The doctor’s voice almost sounds familiar in a way, but Izuku can’t place it. “I haven’t even begun on that body yet. I’ve been focusing mostly on engineering some of the older bodies we have to take in more quirks so far. If you want to see it, the body’s over there, on that table.”

A hand appeared from behind a glass chamber, pointing towards the opposite side of the lab. Sensei merely hummed before walking off, leaving Izuku to stumble afterward.

Izuku’s approach to the table slowed the closer he got to the table, closer to the _body_ , and he could see that it was still left in the state it had been in when it had died. The clothes were left on, injuries still present, and so was the _blood._ The smell was disgusting, but it wasn’t anything Izuku hadn’t smelled before, regrettably.

As Izuku stepped up on the left side of the table, he felt his stomach turn for another reason.

His eyes burned with the effort it took to hold in his tears, swallowing the bile in his mouth as his eyes scanned over a man he had only seen in pictures, but undoubtedly recognized.

God, _how would Mom react? Does she even know?_

Izuku held back any negative signs as he looked over his father’s body, unable to do anything but slip the small silver band off of the man’s hand and pocket it.

“Well, Izuku, have you satisfied your curiosity?” Sensei asked, looming over the corpse.

“Yes, Sensei,” Izuku replied, a smile on his face.

Izuku tried not to cry when Sensei took fire breathing away from him.

* * *

Months passed, with countless lessons and quirks to analyze. Izuku wasn’t sure, but Kurogiri told him that the UA sports festival was coming up, which meant that it had nearly been a full year since he’d been kidnapped as the festival had taken place less than a month beforehand.

Around twice a month, Izuku would receive a new quirk from Sensei, one that Sensei was on the fence about keeping or one that he had just received and was too busy focusing on Tomura to properly experiment with, so he’d pass it off to Izuku. 

Izuku would accept the quirk, study it, and get used to the quirk, regardless of whether it was a mutation quirk that turned arms into bat wings or an emitter quirk that allowed him to swap any two objects he was touching. He would find the quirks limits, theorize about the quirk, and he would write everything down in his journal for Sensei to read.

(He never wrote about how _this_ quirk reminded him of Endeavor, or how Best Jeanist could work even better with a sidekick with _this,_ or how this mental quirk made him think about that Gen Ed student that won the UA sports festival a few years ago.)

(He tried not to think about where the quirks came from. He always failed at that one, though.)

It didn’t surprise Izuku anymore when Sensei took and gave quirks to him without a word of warning.

Therefore, when Sensei posed a question to Izuku one day at the end of their lessons, it threw him off.

It was a normal lesson. It was right after another “spar” with Tomura, where all Izuku could do was try to dodge the disintegrating blow and use the minor hardening quirk that Sensei had given him two days ago, but Izuku wasn’t used to the quirk yet. He could barely use the quirk when staying still, forget even _trying_ to use it when in motion, and Tomura ended up decaying a small part of Izuku’s side. Not enough to cause major damage, just enough to make Izuku hurt for a bit. Kurogiri patched him up, but his side hurt a lot more than his other injuries from Tomura usually did.

“Is something the matter, Izuku? You’ve been grabbing at your side a lot during our lesson today.” Sensei spoke up, startling Izuku and sending a shock of pain through him when he tensed.

“A-ah, I’m s-sorry, Sensei. Master T-T-Tomura caught me off guard during a spar earlier today and I-I got hurt. I-It’s nothing to b-bother you w-with, Sensei!” Although Izuku only saw Tomura about once a month, the older boy forced him into a fight every time in order to ‘see how much his player two had leveled up.’ Izuku could barely be around the teen’s dead eyes without shaking, despite how long it’d been.

The man only hummed before asking, “Would you like a quirk, Izuku?”

“Huh?! I-I’m afraid I-I don’t understand, Sensei.”

“Then allow me to rephrase the question, Izuku. I’m in the possession of a minor healing quirk which I think would be useful for you, and I’m asking if you would like to keep it. Of course, I would engineer it to make sure that it will not interfere with your bi-monthly quirk analyses, but I believe _you_ would be the most capable person I know who could use it to its full capacity.”

_Have a quirk? My..._ own _quirk? I…I won’t be a Deku anymore?_

It was tempting. Izuku had always despised himself for his quirklessness, but…

_How can someone have two quirks? Wouldn’t that just turn me into...one of those creatures?_

Izuku had seen them. The Nomu. Tomura was always so possessive and _proud_ of them, and he’d taken Izuku into the labs barely two weeks after he’d been there. He’d forced Izuku to watch as a _corpse_ was strapped down onto a table, pumped full of quirks and chemicals, twisting and morphing its body into a monster, and then set-up in some weird glass vat, and Tomura had laughed the entire time. Izuku had to wait until Tomura left him alone so that he could go vomit, and he couldn’t sleep for the next several months.

“B-but, Sensei, w-wouldn’t I just turn into one of those...N-Nomu?” He asked, looking up nervously at the man. Sensei only held a slightly...reassuring smile on his face, as if he was talking to a child or a far dumber being. More of a condescending imitation of reassurance than any real attempt.

“Not at all, Izuku. Nomu are created through intense processes, ones that I would not put you through at all. You will merely have to adjust to having a quirk at all times, that is all, Izuku.”

Although Izuku didn’t trust the man, he knew that Sensei didn’t often outright lie. The man’s words could be...trusted, but the direction they led often had to be watched carefully.

_If I take this opportunity, I wouldn’t have to keep bothering Mr. Kurogiri every time I got hurt. And...I wouldn’t be a useless Deku anymore either._

A determined look took over Izuku’s face as a satisfied smile spread over Sensei’s face.

“I-I’d like to a-accept it. T-The quirk, Sensei, if that’s okay.”

The immortal brought his right hand up to rest over Izuku’s forehead.

“Of course it’s okay, Izuku. Think of it as a _gift.”_

The paralyzing fear and deep numbness that is now familiar spreads through Izuku’s body again. He was tense before he knew it, and a shock of pain spread from the wound in his side, but he couldn’t move or flinch in response at all.

A refreshing cool spread over Izuku quickly afterward, slightly dulling the pain, and Izuku blinked as Sensei pulled his hand away.

“There. Now, it is a _healing_ quirk, not a regeneration quirk, so be mindful of that, and don’t forget to study the hardening quirk I gave you at the last lesson. Remember to think about what I said during today’s lesson, Izuku.”

Izuku didn’t notice the man leave, too focused on himself as the feeling of all of his aches slowly fading away. It wasn’t extreme by any rate, but in just minutes, the itchy feeling from the months-old scar on his arm lessened and the stiff cramps he’d been feeling in his hands from all the notes he’d written faded. Izuku felt better than he had in _months._

As he flipped his hands back and forth, flexing his hands and marveling at the lack of any pain, he spotted green. Stopping, he saw a large mint-green plus sign on the back of his hands, exactly like the symbol used for health in the games Tomura plays. Flipping his hands over, Izuku saw that the entirety of his palms were the same mint-green as the cross.

Izuku couldn’t help but wonder if anything else about himself had changed, but there wasn’t a mirror in the study.

He ended up racing back to the bar, the shortest path having long been memorized.

“Mr. Kurogiri, Mr. Kurogiri!” Izuku yelled out as he burst out into the empty bar. As typical, Kurogiri was standing behind the bar, making himself busy.

“Welcome back, Izuku. How was your lesson?” Kurogiri’s eyes look amused and happy as he looks at Izuku hop up onto the barstools at the counter, sliding him a juice with ease.

“It was alright,” Izuku sucks the juice through the straw with all the distractedness of a normal seven-year-old who wasn’t kidnapped by villains and forced to work for them. “But!! I got a quirk!”

“A quirk? Isn’t it a little too soon for Master to give you a new quirk? You only received that hardening quirk two days ago.”

“Yeah,” Izuku bounces in his chair, ”but Sensei said I get to keep this one! He said it was a gift!”

Kurogiri’s mist flares slightly in surprise as his eyes widen.

“Really, now? How...surprising. What is this quirk, little one?”

Izuku holds out his hands, palm up, allowing Kurogiri to flip his hands when the man takes leans closer to observe, “It’s a healing quirk! Sensei said to remember that it’s healing and not regeneration, so I’m guessing he means that I have to activate it for it to work rather than it just heal me all the time, but I think it gave me an enhanced healing rate too! My scars were kinda itchy earlier, but when I got the quirk, it faded away!”

“I see. That’s impressive, Izuku. You must be careful that it truly _is_ simply an enhanced rate of natural healing for you, and not your quirk working, as I’ve heard that healing quirks have a tendency to drain energy in order to work. Be sure to not tire yourself out, Izuku. Hm?” Kurogiri leaned closer to Izuku, brushing the longer hairs out of Izuku’s eyes as he peered closer. “Oh my, it appears your iris has slightly changed as well. There’s an additional cross symbol in your eye, identical to the ones on your hands.”

_“So cool!”_ Izuku whispered to himself, pressing his hands to his cheeks. Kurogiri smiled to himself, allowing the child his moment of joy before turning on the TV, to the news as usual. Kurogiri had managed to turn it on just as the news was replaying footage of All Might defeating a villain in Tokyo. 

“All Might!” Izuku cheered, before catching himself and looking around warily. He resumed watching the news, flitting between gazing at his mint-green palms and hiding his joy at seeing his hero. Kurogiri couldn’t help but feel a pang of guilt at the sight, knowing that he had harshly reprimanded the boy when he had first arrived, but Izuku had kept shouting about heroes and being saved, and that would’ve only had deadly repercussions had Tomura heard any of it.

Kurogiri was surprised when the Master had decided to personally teach the boy, but after nearly a year, he can see why. Izuku was a genius, and not one who would fall to the Master’s deceptions and manipulations easily, but if he ever succumbed, he would certainly be quite the asset. Kurogiri dreaded ever seeing that day.

Kurogiri had taken it upon himself to teach the boy how to fight. Izuku had already been rather small and agile at the beginning, which made teaching him how to dodge and move around an opponent a rather simple task, but he was often unwilling to injure his opponents. His pacifist tendencies made it difficult at times to teach the boy, but Kurogiri continued to find patience within himself that he hadn’t expected he’d find. Perhaps he was a patient person before…

As time marched on, there was an ember, or what would be more correct to call a dead match, already having burnt itself to soot, slowly being gathered and stoked inside of Kurogiri.

It would take much longer for the match to light, and even longer so before the spark that sets it ablaze would be struck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Healing Hands: Grants the User the ability to heal any injuries using their own energy. User is granted a faster rate of natural healing, and can take in more energy than normal people. The rate at which an injury is healed depends on the size and impact of the injury, as well as the amount of energy the User has. 
> 
> When active, the User's hands, eyes, and marks on the skin will glow a pale green color (Scars and Freckles included). When in use, Healing Hands will numb the area around the injury in the form of a refreshing cool feeling, and the healing itself is painless.
> 
> (Also, the hardening quirk isn't related to any character!! It's just a quirk, one that I thought was probably a common quirk to have!! dw, no special boys have been harmed!!)

**Author's Note:**

> if u have any quiestions or thoughts, dont forget to comment them down below!!
> 
> u can find me @cloudcityscape on tumblr
> 
> -q


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